by Scott Sacry
Corvallis’ senior track standout Olivia Lewis finished her high school track career in historic fashion at the Class A State meet in Laurel on May 24-26. And to say Lewis’ performance was historic may be an understatement.
Lewis won the 400m, the 100m hurdles, the 300m hurdles, took 4th in the 200m and 6th in the high jump. She was also on Corvallis’ 4×100 relay team that finished 3rd, and she was on the 4×400 relay team.
Lewis’ most impressive result was in the 300m hurdles. Lewis set the Class A record of 43.37 in the event last year at state. The all-class record was 42.87, set by Liz Harper in 2013. Lewis had run 42.36 earlier in the year. It’s rare to break an all-class state record, but if everything went perfectly it looked like Lewis had a chance.
“Her legs had already had seven races in them by that point,” said Corvallis head coach Spencer Huls, “so I didn’t know how much she would have in the tank. We knew she had to run the 200m an hour later, so the plan was for her to clear the first 3 of 4 hurdles and then coast home.”
Huls and Lewis have a plan for the first four hurdles that involves a certain number of steps. Lewis hadn’t hit the step pattern all year.
Lewis exploded out of the blocks and coming around the corner already had a sizable lead. Coming down the back stretch her lead looked like Secretariat at the Belmont: Lewis by 10 meters, Lewis by 20 meters, Lewis by 30 meters. With the boisterous crowd on their feet and her competitors far behind, Lewis crossed the finish line in a staggering time of 41.86.
Not only had she broken an 11 year old record, but she shattered it by a full second.
“She came up to me after the race and said she was sorry,” said Huls, “but she hit her steps and said she ‘had to go for it’. She is such a good teammate, she was still thinking about the points from the 200m. Then she went out and ran a personal best in the 200m.”
Huls tried to put Lewis’ 300m time in perspective, “Lewis is the first girl in Montana to go under 42 seconds in the event. In the history of girl’s track in Montana, only one girl had gone under 43 seconds, Liz Harper, who had the record. Now Olivia is the only girl to ever go under 42 seconds.”
In the 100m hurdles, Lewis won by running a personal best time of 14.49, which is the fastest time by a Montana girl this year and .02 seconds away from the Class A record of 14.47 held by former Corvallis great Paige Squire.
In the 400m, Lewis won by running a personal best time of 55.52, which is the fastest time by a Montana girl this year and a half second off the Class A record.
In the 200m, Lewis took 4th with a personal best time of 25.03, which is the 4th fastest time in the state this year. And finally, in an event Lewis competed in for the first time this year, Lewis took 6th in the high jump. Lewis’ point total was enough to beat 14 of the teams that competed at state.
Lewis won those same three events in 2023 and won the 400m in 2022, giving her seven total individual state titles for her high school career. We’re likely to see more from Lewis in the future, as she will be running track for Montana State University next year.
“She is a joy to watch,” said Huls “She is such a great competitor and hard worker, she deserves everything she gets. If you are a fan of track at any level, regardless who you are rooting for, that was something special to watch.”
Janet M Hughes says
She is awesome Iv told family in Calif abt her achievments Family and Montana have to be the proudest